Good Enough
by Jane Doe 616
Summary: She was tired of being the good girl, of not being good enough. They wondered why she’d turned to him, the traitor. She went to him because with him she didn’t have to be the good girl. With him she was always good enough. Always. SasuHina *Revised*
1. Chapter 1

Summary: She was tired of being the good girl. She was tired of being looked down upon. Tired of not being good enough. They wondered why she'd turned to him of all people. She'd turned to him; she'd turned to the traitor, because with him she didn't have to be the good girl. He never looked down at her and for him she was always good enough. Always.

Okay so here's my first attempt at a SasuHina or a decent story for that matter. This has been in my head for a while and after a time this has become my favorite coupling in Naruto. (Which I do not own). So well here goes, enjoy --- JaneDoe616

Chapter One: Childish Reasoning

'This is bullshit,' I thought. My eyes widened at my own thoughts, shocked at my words. But that's how I felt at the time and, although those aren't the words I'd use now that I was thinking more clearly, that's how I still felt. This wasn't fair. It wasn't _fair. _It was a childish reason and in the back of my mind I knew that. Still, it didn't make it any less true. I'd always been a firm believer in thinking that children always seemed to have the best logic. Too bad no one else agreed with me or I just might have had some sort of reasonable argument. I sighed heavily and rolled onto my back.

I could still remember the blank non-caring look on his face when he'd told me. How he hadn't blinked of batted an eye or even gave a single hint that he was sorry that he was doing this. That he was ending my life without striking a single physical blow. That I would resign as a shinobi. I'd like to think that I would have taken it differently had he shown some sort of remorse. I guess I'll never know.

'It's no longer necessary,' He'd said. 'A waste of your time. You have other important things to do now that you are coming of age'.

"No longer necessary," I whispered to myself.

So I was no longer necessary? Had I ever been necessary? Or was I simply some little girl who they let play ninja for a while? God, was I that bad of a kunoichi? That bad of a representation of the Hyuuga Clan to the point where they would rather have me at home doing nothing than have my mediocre ninja skills besmirch the Hyuuga name? Apparently so, because that's exactly what they were going to do. That's exactly what they were doing.

I rolled over on my bed again and stared outside the window to the village. I'd like to think that I was necessary. I hoped that the village needed me. I hoped somebody needed me. Anybody at all would do. I didn't want to quit being a shinobi. I knew that I could have been better. I really could have. My chakra capacity wasn't as great as the others, I'd admit. My skill level in using my Byakugan could have been better as well. I could have been faster, more agile I suppose and my reflexes were a little slow. But I could fix all that. I could train harder. I could. I would, if only they would give me a chance to. Besides, I was good at some things. My chakra control was rivaled by none, not even Neji. I was an amazing medic second only to Sakura and I'd even made it to Jounin, so I couldn't have been that bad. But if I wasn't then why were they doing this to me?

I didn't want to resign. As hard as it was and as much as I beat myself up for not being better, I loved being a kunoichi. It was my life. It was all I had left. They had taken so many things from me; my voice, my freedom, my courage. They couldn't have this. I wouldn't let them take this from me too. I suddenly found myself angry. This shocked me as well. I was rarely ever angry. If I ever was, it was myself that I was angry with. I'd never been angry with my clan; I could never bring myself to be. I'd resented them before and often wished that I belonged to a different family, but it wouldn't last long and afterward I'd feel terribly guilty for betraying my family in such a way. But right now, for the first time, I was angry. I was enraged and it scared me that I liked it. I couldn't stop myself from remembering all the things that they and done to me. All the things they had said and the things that I knew that they would do one day. This only succeeded in making me angrier. I realized then that I had tears coming down my face now. It didn't matter. I'd become extremely good at silent crying over the years

It was at then that I found my resolve. It was hard to grasp and I was afraid of it like a child to darkness, but I wouldn't let it go. No matter how much it scared me. I would stop being a kunoichi the day I died, not a day sooner. They could not, and would not take this away from me too. I wouldn't let them. I rolled to the other side of my bed and curled in a ball and cried even more. I cried because I knew the obstacles I would face. I cried because I knew that this time there would probably be a chance they would disown me. I cried for all the times I knew I would want to cry in the near, and possibly distant, future.

I cried long and hard but I cried softly, because I knew that if any others in the compound ever heard me they would think I was weak. I cried even harder because as angry as I was at her family right now, as much as I hated them, in the back of my mind I knew that I still wanted them to accept me. I stopped crying and strengthened my resolve even more and became a little less scared because I knew that they never would.

'_God, this was so unfair'_ were my last thoughts before I cried myself to sleep.

* * *

A/N Okay so there it is. It'll be get much more interesting later in the story but for now I really just have to get the setting and show you how this is gonna go. The next chapter will be longer critiques are much welcome. I have had the story betaed by Pyrite and would like to than k her very much for doing it because it makes me feel a lot better about the story ^_^

--- JaneDoe616


	2. Chapter 2

Sorry! Sorry Sorry! I apologize for taking so long to update. I really don't know what happened but I'm SORRY! Ok, now that that's over....Yay! Only a day on the site and I have three reviews so that's good (at least for me it is). Okay so right now I'm getting some pretty good feedback. Okay so here's the second chapter and I hope you like it.

Chapter Two: Rabbit Mask

I woke up not remembering exactly when I had gone to sleep. I supposed I must have cried myself to sleep and I contemplated whether I wanted to actually get up or wallow in my misery for just a while longer. That was an extremely difficult decision for me and I was starting to lean toward the pity party when I heard a knock on my door.

"Come in," I said. My voice was hoarse from crying and was barely above a whisper but some how they must have heard me because they came in. It was my sister, Hanabi.

"Father says he wants to see you," she said and after giving me a fierce glare, she left without another word. I didn't remember us being mad at each other but I couldn't bring myself to care much right now.

My father wanted to see me. Now that I thought about it my father had never been a patient man. Calm, cool, and collected, yes. But never patient. I probably already had an appointment with the Hokage. When I was planning this whole 'not going to let it happen' thing I had thought, at the time, my father would wait. My father, however, never spoke to me unless it was important and right now this was of the utmost importance to him. So then, what exactly was I going to do? Say I wasn't going to go? That would not end well and my rebellion would be over before it even began. Not going was not an option.

I rolled over on my bed again. I'd been doing that a lot but I just couldn't seem to say still. I looked at my room and realized that it was extremely under decorated and had almost no color. In that sense I supposed I was like all other Hyuuga. I had the basics: a chest of drawers, a dresser with a vanity, and a bed of course and a night stand next to it, but I didn't really have much else. I had a few figurines that were on the dresser and a couple of teddy bears that Kiba had been determined to win me at a festival, but that was it. Maybe while I was on this whole 'rebellion' thing I would redecorate and add some other colors besides white and crème.

I continued to look around my room trying to find other things that would signify that I had some sort of personality when I saw it. On the wall directly in front of me placed in the middle was the answer to all my problems. It could all be just that simple. Then again, maybe not. Nothing was ever simple when it came to me.

Tsunade had offered everyone in the Rookie Nine an opportunity to become Anbu. They wouldn't immediately be thrown into an S class mission with a 'Good luck' and a pat on the back. First they would train, hardcore, for six months and after that they would replace an old Anbu member who felt that they had had enough and just wanted to settle down.

They had offered me the chance to become Anbu three months ago as well and I had declined. They had given me a rabbit Anbu mask, which now hung on my wall, along with the words "In case you change you're mind" as the reasoning. I was now glad that the offer was still open. I would be three months behind and would have to catch up with the others, but it would be worth it. My father would be furious, ashamed of me and would possibly disown me, but I could not simply drop out of Anbu. It didn't work like that. He would have no choice but to let me continue with the training. It would give me an opportunity to prove myself as a ninja. Right now, that's all I could ask for.

* * *

After showering, brushing my teeth, washing my face, getting dressed and completing all of my other small morning rituals, I finally left the comfort of my room to go talk to my father. The compound was big enough that getting anywhere in the house took anywhere from five to twenty minutes. The walk from my room to my father's office took exactly twelve minutes. I'd timed myself once. Make a right after leaving my room walk down two hallways, right, right, left, right, left, left, left, right, go down another 3 hallways and with a final right I found myself in front of my fathers office. That twelve minute walk had not been nearly enough to prepare me for this talk. I raised my hand to knock on the door but hesitated, like I always did, and finally knocked softly.

"Enter," he said. I slid the door open and walked inside.

My father's office was rather modern compared to the rest of our traditional Japanese style mansion. There was a large oak desk that had stacks and piles of papers and scrolls atop of it. The desk itself took up a good portion of the back of the room. Despite the contemporary feel the office had it was just like the rest of the compound: big and intimidating but still bland and without color. To my left there was a couch and a large family portrait including me, my father, Hanabi and my mother. That was the only picture of my mother in the entire compound. My father wouldn't even let me have a picture of her. I finally turned my attention to my father. I bowed and sat in the chair in front of my father's large desk.

"You wanted to see me, father?" I said in my small, quiet but now steady voice. My father had forced my stutter out of me. He'd told everyone in the house that they were not to respond to anything I said unless my voice was without a stutter. He hadn't even told me of his intentions. In the beginning I'd had simply thought they had all decided to hate me simultaneously. In the back of my mind I had been waiting for it to finally happen. It took me three months to figure out what was actually going on and that was because Neji had taken pity on me and told me. I had only been fifteen at the time.

"Yes," he responded, "You have a meeting with the Hokage today. About what you already know of, and I expect you to make quick work of this so we can be done with it. Is that understood?"

"Yes, father."

"Good, you may go now, she will be expecting you soon." he paused for a moment, "I must say, I expected a bit more of a rebuttal from you, but I am grateful that you are taking this so responsibly. This is the first step of many that shall make you the leader of our clan one day."

He didn't smile but his face lost its hardness and softened a little. I, however, did smile and said, "Thank you, father."

I stood up, bowed, walked out of the room and turned the corner. I stopped and leaned against the wall with a shudder. I was so confused. My father had given me the most praise since when I had stopped stuttering. His complement had been "You finally stopped stuttering" and a nod of his head. But just the fact that he had acknowledged my lack of a stutter was a complement in itself. But this time he had actually called me responsible. He told me that I would be the future leader of the clan. He was always making offhand comments about how much better an heiress Hanabi would be were she allowed. Did I really want to make him regret saying those things to me? Was being a shinobi really worth it?

I laughed at myself.

Of course it would be worth it. The praise, if you could call it that, would only last until I messed up again. If the praise would end after I disgraced the family name, which I would, then I might as well do it thoroughly. I wondered to myself when I had become such a pessimist.

I picked myself up off the ground and headed for the exit of the compound before anyone could see me. He'd said that I had an appointment with the Hokage and that I knew what I had to say during the meeting. What he said had been true. I knew exactly what I would talk to the Hokage about; it just wasn't what my father expected.

* * *

I was just coming up to the door of the Hokage's office. My trip here had been a pleasant one. I'd said hello to all the shop keepers of the shops I frequented the most. I'd been told that my new kimono had come in. I'd even given several little girls a piece of candy and seen how bright their faces lit up when I did. Yes, all in all a very good walk. It had given me time to find reasons to not do exactly what my father wanted. I'd needed the reassurance to convince myself; to calm myself.

I paused at the door and pulled the Anbu mask out of my jacket. _'Such a simple mask' _I thought as I traced my fingers across the red lines that decorated the mask. The mask was made of some hard material, wood most likely, in the shape of a rabbit with lines of red paint that decorated each side symmetrically. No other colors, no other significant features. It reminded her eerily of herself. It was such a simple mask, but it would change my life. Or at least I hoped it would. I needed t to. I looked up from the mask to the door, took a deep breath, summoned all the courage I had (which wasn't much) and knocked softly on the door.

Almost immediately after I knocked I heard a steady "Come in" from Tsunade. It was very far and in between when the Hokage was sober but her steady voice signified that this was one of those rare moments. I slid the door open and walked in.

Tsunade sat at her desk. The desk held papers, scrolls, a glass of sake, ink, a brush to write with and several other things that I couldn't identify. Despite all the clutter, papers, sake and other items that dominated her desk Tsunade still managed to look beautiful and intimidating.

I hadn't too much thought about how I would go about telling Tsunade my request. I had arrived at the tower before I had the chance to think that part through. Unfortunately, it wasn't until I stood directly in front of Tsunade that I realized this. I had absolutely _no idea_ how I was going to go about asking her.

Tsunade stared at me expectantly and waited. We started at each other for a good thirty more seconds before I told Tsunade exactly what I wanted in the most un-Hinata way.

"I want to join Anbu", I said.

There wasn't a stutter, a quiver, or even a pause when I'd said it. My voice wasn't overtly loud, but I suddenly realized that that was the loudest I'd ever spoken. Tsunade only grinned at me.

"I was wondering when your request would come and I must say it came later than I expected. You're very far behind the rest of the group. Can I assume that that won't be an issue?" she inquired.

"Yes, Tsunade-sama"

Tsunade chuckled. "I'd thought not".

The grin never left Tsunade's face.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Stop and Stare

I was getting extremely tired of all the stares.

In the beginning, when I'd first come here, I'd expected them―had tolerated them even. It was a leisure I would let them have. I mean, what else could they do? Speak words of hate to let me know how unwelcomed I was? Keep their distance? Hurt me? The first was already known, the second, would have been very much appreciated and the third, was laughable. So I would let them stare. And stare, they did.

Here I was in training ground 9, with all of the other Anbu trainees, training like everyone else and all they could do was stare at me. The Traitor. Enemy # 1. Not to be confused with enemy #'s 2, 3, & 4. That, however, was another story for another time. So I digress.

It was funny in a sick kind of way. I'd spent 10 of my measly 17 years training to kill the person who had once been The Traitor of Konoha, only to take his place. Not only that, but the aforementioned traitor was still alive.

That was a thought that would never leave me until it was no longer there to be thought, until I could not say those words without lying.

Oh yes, Itachi is still alive.

I had betrayed my village and my country, trained with the most hated and despicable ninja in the continent, broken the heart of the one girl who might have truly loved me and severed all bonds with the few friends that I had and nearly killed my "best friend". I'd practically given up my life. I'd done all that to kill my brother and need I remind you for the third time, that the bastard was _still alive. _

The sad, sick and twisted thing about all that?

I'd do it all over again if it would give me a better chance to kill him.

Despite the fact that I would kill and/or betray all of the people I was currently surrounded by, I felt…content. Not happy. No I would never be happy and I still didn't trust anyone here, but training with Tsunade didn't have the same feeling of stress and seriousness that training with Orochimaru had. I figured I could allow myself the leisure of being here for a while.

The only reason I was still in Konoha was because this was currently the best place to train. While I had been away training with Orochimaru, the rest of the Rookie Nine and Team Gai had gotten stronger as well. Most of them I could take out without blinking, but there were several that could really put up a fight. There were even a two or three that could actually pose as a threat.

It was for that cause that I continued training and ignored the stares. I was currently sparring against one of those who could pose a threat and Enemy # 2, Naruto. I would never understand how Naruto had managed to still be hated by so many in the time I had been gone. I would later learn that at one point they hadn't. They had all learned to like Naruto to an extent. They had accepted him and he'd even occasionally been allowed to help the children in the Academy train. That is, until he became the poster boy for the "Let Sasuke Come Back to Konoha" campaign. He even petitioned that I be able to regain my status as a shinobi. When just that came to pass, everyone who didn't truly know him, which was more than it should have been, had turned on him. Now I'm a cold and heartless bastard, but even I felt sorry for him. I threw a punch that landed on Naruto's nose with a sickening crunch.

Okay, maybe not _that_ sorry. It would heal in the next 30 seconds or so anyway.

The other members of the Rookie Nine and Gai's team were here as well. They had all been asked to take the place of former Anbu along with myself. To my knowledge, all but one had accepted. I didn't know why they had turned down the opportunity but with two more seconds of thought on the subject I found that I didn't care. I never cared unless it involved me directly so why start now?

Since the fall of Danzo, Tsunade had taken control and fused Anbu and Anbu Root together. The two of them together were simply called Anbu. With the exception of the uniform, Tsunade intended to completely remodel Anbu: the setup, the teams, the requirements, the missions, everything. She hadn't told us the specifics because she was "still waiting for the last piece of the puzzle to fall into place". Until then she'd told us we would be going through the necessary training that was now required for Anbu.

So since then, we'd all been training relentlessly for the past 3 months to get to her standards. Tsunade had made us go back to the beginning of our training. I mean the very beginning. The first month was weapons. First, she had us throwing shuriken and kunai at targets. Over and over again. Finally she had us throwing them at each other, until they hit the target exactly where they intended every single time. That had taken more time then any of us could have ever expected. Next, we went on to dodging kunai and shuriken. Every single time. This is more problematic than you may think. Have you ever tried to dodge a kunai that you were supposed to dodge and not supposed to be able to dodge at the same time, _every single time?_ Not easy. But once again, I digress.

After that, we moved on to more complex weapons. In other words, every single weapon that Tsunade could get her overly powerful hands on we had to master, or in most cases learn the basics. Of course, Tenten already had mastered all of the weapons and then some so she ended up mainly helping every one. That had been annoying. I don't consider myself sexist; I'd grown out of that many years ago because I had met plenty of formidable kunoichi. Hell, female ninjas seemed to be more ruthless than male ninjas. But Tenten, a girl, being ahead of me irked me to no end. I consoled myself with the belief that I would be equally annoyed if it were Neji. The fact that I was the second among us to master the weapons was also a boost to my ego.

Next was Taijutsu. Many, including myself, had believed themselves to be more than proficient in Taijutsu. We, however, could not have been more wrong. Tsunade had taken a note from Kakashi and told us all to come at her with all that we had, using only Taijutsu. It had ended the same way it had the very first time with Kakashi: me feeling childish, defeated and humiliated. I supposed she was a Sannin for a reason. The only one who had been able to actually put up a decent fight was Sakura and that was only because a) she had been trained by Tsunade herself and b) her massive strength…which she learned from Tsunade. In the end she was still defeated and humiliated, just like the rest of us.

She had told us to train any way we wanted in order to beat her. She also said that she would not move from Taijutsu until we could at least put up a decent fight. We had challenged her thrice more times. They had all ended the same way with varying time lengths.

So, here we were now in the training grounds training to better our Taijutsu skills to beat Tsunade. At this rate, we would be training much longer than six months. I threw another punch at Naruto. This time he dodged. We continued trading punches and kicks and would have continued to do so if we hadn't been interrupted by the shriek of a whistle.

Naruto and I stopped. So did everyone else. We looked for the cause of the whistle and found it standing in the center of the training ground. We turned around to face her completely.

Tsunade stood there looking extremely happy and extremely smug. She had a grin on her face that rivaled Naruto's and that was saying something. Either this was really, really good or really, really bad. She called everyone to attention. The moment of truth had arrived.

"Listen up everybody!" she yelled. Everybody listened. "Do you all remember when I told you that I was still waiting for one more piece to fall in to place?" She waited a beat; nobody said anything, "well that piece finally decided to join the rest of the puzzle. I would like you all to meet the last and final member of Anbu,"

As if by magic a girl appeared next to her. I could have sworn that she hadn't been there before. But there she was, somehow managing to curl into a ball while still standing. I couldn't make out most of her features because she had her head down. I did notice that she had a large lavender jacket and she had long, bluish black hair. I guess that I'd simply looked over her.

"Hyuuga Hinata!" she finished.

The girl, Hinata apparently, snapped her head up at the mention of her name. Her white pupiless eyes were wide and her hands covered the bottom half of her face. Her fingers would not stop twitching. All in all, she looked like a frightened deer. She looked pathetic. How the hell was this girl, who was probably afraid of her own shadow, supposed to be the last piece of Anbu?

I had taken a lot of humiliation for Tsunade, but only because in the end she had been right. (Although I would never admit that out loud) But this was just crazy. Stupid crazy. I refuse to be apart of a team with some weakling. I would not be held back. Nothing would stop me from killing Itachi. Before I could voice this, she started talking again.

"Now, I want all of you to follow me so that we can finally discuss the team formations of this Anbu group. I told you that you would all simply be taking over for some retiring Anbu members. That was a lie. Now that Hinata is here, the real training will begin. You will be broken up into teams of two forming 6 groups. You will be an elite subsection of Anbu. You are Anbu Shigai. I will explain it to you more in detail in my office."

Everyone stood still for a moment with the dumb 'huh?' look on their faces and they looked at one another. Naruto shrugged and proceeded to follow Tsunade. Everyone else followed him. I stood back a little longer. I finally decided to follow everyone else while thinking '_What the hell was this crazy bitch thinking?'_

* * *

**A/N:** Ok, so there it is. So was he too out of character? I think I might have made him too...something. I need you guys to tell me so I can fix it. And was this chapter too boring? I just felt like you guys needed more info on this whole Anbu thing. Things'll really start getting interesting next chapter cause then I get to choose teams!!! And Shigai means "Body" and I know that sounds weird right now but it'll make sense next chap. I now realize that there is no use in me saying I'll update soon cause I probably won't. Sorry. Well I will say that I will work on it and there will be a chapter 4. So please review. I need critique, not flames btw.

Also, a review was left by **I'm Not Psychotic. I'm Gifted. **and it helped very much. I would like to thank her/him and let her/him know that I fixed the pronoun usage. No for real this time.


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